Odisha’s Keonjhar civic body chairperson loses trust vote

In what could be termed a major blow to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the Chairperson of Keonjhar Municipality Meena Majhi today lost the no-trust motion against her moved by the party colleagues last month.

In the 21-member urban local body, 15 councillors voted against her including nine from BJD and six from the Congress. However, one member of the civic body abastained from voting.

“Sixteen members were present to case their votes. Of them, 15 councillors voted in favour of no-trust motion and one abstained from voting. I would convey this to the government and the Collector,” Keonjhar Sub Collector Purna Chandra Mishra said.

Defying the party whip, these nine BJD councillors voted in favour of the trust vote. Notably, BJD has 14, Congress has 6 and BJP has one member in the municipality.

The BJD had issued a whip to its councillors yesterday asking them not to vote in the no-trust motion.

Reacting to this, senior BJD leader and Urban Development Minister Badri Narayan Patra said: “Action would be taken against the members who have gone against the party whip not to vote against the chairperson, as per the Anti-Defection Law recently passed in the Assembly.”